COM 2006
45th International Conference of Metallurgistsheld in conjunction with the 36th Annual Hydrometallurgy Meeting
17th International Symposium "ICSOBA 2006"

The industrial world of metals and materials keeps changing along with all other technological and economic changes taking place around us. The pace of change and intensity of competition increases. The society demands better products and cleaner technologies. All metals and materials professionals from their different posts of engagement, being industry, government or academia, work to meet the new challenges.

Global partnerships and technological innovation is the assured way by which we can achieve our goals. This was the theme chosen for COM 2006 – The 45th Conference of Metallurgists organized by METSOC – the Metallurgical Society of CIM. It is in this spirit that the organizers decided to recognize the life-achievements of Dr. Gerald Hatch,, founder of one of the top metallurgical engineering firms in the world.

The technical program of the conference featured papers from all fields of minerals, metals and materials science, engineering and industrial practice. The conference focus was on a number of key symposia which attracted the best scientists, engineers and managers from around the world that discussed their respective technical subjects. Given the importance of the light metals industry in Québec, the aerospace industry in the Montréal region and the mineral and metal industries in Canada, the conference also featured trend-setting symposia in those areas.

True to the theme of “Global Partnerships” chosen for the conference, four of the major symposia were co-sponsored by a number of international committees and societies. In this context we were happy to co-host, with ICSOBA (International Committee for the Study of Bauxite, Alumina and Aluminium), the International Symposium on Aluminium and, with the Magnesium Committee of TMS, the International Symposium on Magnesium Technology. The International Symposium on Aerospace Materials and Manufacturing was co-sponsored by the ASM Canada Council, while the International Symposium on Iron Control in Hydrometallurgy was co-sponsored by AusIMM (Australia), GDMB (Germany), MMIJ (Japan), SAIMM (South Africa) and TMS.